Books with Identifiable Covers
by Fickle Stripey
Summary: What would have happened if on her first day of school at Lawndale Quinn hadn't been one of the pretty, popular people?


This story was part of the Iron Chef: Maimed/Scarred Quinn challenge on the PaperPusher's Message Board. There were many excellent entires for this challenge and I'll admit that my take is more shallow than most of the other offers. I hope it provides at least some modicrum of entertainment for you, the reader.

Disclaimer: The television show Daria and all of its characters belong to MTV. I'm just having fun.

**Books with Identifiable Covers**

Jake Morgendorffer checked the rear view mirror before returning his eyes to the road.

"Now girls, this is a whole new town. A chance to start over!"

"We know," Daria intoned.

"So it would be a good opportunity to maybe make some friends."

"Yes, Dad," Daria sighed.

Jake nervously glanced at the mirror again. "And maybe, if you girls worked on it, you could not get into so much trouble at this school. Right, Quinn?"

"God Daddy, I'm not going to just run into the school with a torch or anything."

"Though I'm sure it would inspire a lengthy lecture on the Salem Witch Hunts," Daria added.

Jake shuddered. "Ewww."

The car pulled to a stop in front of the school. Quinn was out of the car in a flash, grabbing her backpack and yelling, "Bye, Daddy," over her shoulder.

Jake turned around towards Daria. "Please keep an eye on her," he asked, sporting his best frazzled, squinty-eyed look.

"I will make sure she punches no more than five people before the day is over."

"Thanks kiddo!" Then, after a pause, "Wait..."

But Daria had already left the car.

**...**

Quinn walked a few steps towards the school, then stopped and turned in a circle, surveying her surroundings.

A couple of guys had started to head towards her. They none-too-subtly veered away as soon as they caught sight of her face. She continued up the steps until she got inside the hallway. There were a few clusters of the usual cliques hanging near corners and lockers. She started to head towards administration and found her path abruptly blocked by a taller girl with shoulder-length brown hair. Quinn quickly took note of her trendy clothes, specifically the v-necked shirt that left the jagged scar across her neck on full display. Two other girls had trailed up behind her, one with her hair in two plaits wearing jeans and a long-sleeved turtleneck, the other looked Asian and wore a short blue dress that did nothing to hide that half of her body was marked with burn scars.

"I'm Sandi." The first girl said. "Like, what happened to your eye?"

Quinn fingered her eye patch for a second, surveyed the three unflinching girls, then pulled it to the side to display her empty eye socket. Sandi didn't flinch. The girl with the plaits froze and yelled "Eep!", while the Asian girl wrinkled her nose and said "Eew," in a low, monotonous voice.

Judging their reactions to be within acceptable bounds, Quinn put the eyepatch back on and said, "A guy brought a gun to school when I was in fourth grade. He didn't check to see if it was loaded before he started pointing it at people during recess." She could dimly remember a little of the day, of the sun shining and a guy saying "Hh, hh, hh. Hey, look what I got."

"Anyway," Quinn said, flipping her hair behind her shoulder, "I was in a coma and stuff for a while. And when I woke up the hospital made me stay a long time. It was terrible. They had all this gross food. Ugh."

Sandi nodded slowly, then pointed towards her neck. "My kid brother got me in bed with a knife a few years ago. My parents were out of town and the babysitter forgot to give him his medication for a few days."

"Stacy," Sandi said, pointing to the girl with the plaits, "cuts herself every time she freaks out about something. Which is, like, all the time."

Stacy shuddered and looked around, "Sandi, I think people are watching!" She rubbed her hand against an oblong bulge in her pocket.

"Tiffany," Sandi pointed towards the girl in the blue dress, "Likes to light stuff on fire too much. And sometimes she forgets to get away when she lights big things. Like the oven."

"Sandiiiii, can I have my lighter baaaaack?" Tiffany asked.

"After school, Tiffany dear."

"I'm Quinn. It's nice to..." meet you, Quinn was going to say. The three girls were both looking at something behind her. Stacy's eyes got round and she started to fumble a knife out of her pocket while Tiffany said, "Daaaaaamn, I dooon't haaaaave my liiiiiighter." Sandi's eyes had narrowed.

Quinn turned around. Three guys had come around the corner, none of them doing anything remarkable as far as Quinn could see. Then, as they walked by one of the boys pointed and said, "Oh look Jeffy, it's the freaks."

"Yeah," Jeffy said, "And it looks like they recruited a new freak. See that, Joey?"

"Haha, yeah, I see. Hey Jeffy, Jamie, remember the last time the freaks were at-"

Quinn punched the one with black hair first. He fell over like a pile of bricks. The other two guys jumped.

"Oh god!" The blond one said, "She hits like a pirate!"

Quinn felt her blood pressure go up. She had just escaped those jokes when they'd left Highland! She'd been at this school for five minutes and they were starting all over again.

"Tiffany dear," Sandi drawled, pulling a small cylindrical object out of her pocket. "Here is your lighter. Like, get rid of these guys."

The Asian girl took the lighter and flicked it on, her eyes were glued to the flame. "I liiiiike fiiiiiiire."

An unmistakably authoritarian voice piped up from down the hall. "What is the meaning of this? Who dares to cause trouble at Lllllllawndale High!"

"Oh crap, it's the principal!" One of the guys shouted. He and his friend grabbed the black-haired guy under the arms and hightailed it past the lady down the hall. She hardly paid attention to them as she started walking towards the girls. "Miss Blum-Deckler, what have I told you about bringing lighters onto campus?"

"Not to doooo iiiiit."

"Omigod, omigod, she's going to call my parents!" Stacy was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"But Miss Li-" Sandi was interrupted by someone gently coughing. The four girls and the principal turned to see a girl in round glasses and a green jacket. Quinn repressed the urge to jump. Daria had a habit of sneaking up on people.

"Miss Li," Daria said, "Me and my sister are new. Aren't we supposed to get... a tour... or something?"

Miss Li promptly turned and forgot about the rest of them. "Oh my, yes! What a terrible thing to see on your first day. Welcome to Lllllawndale High!" She looked around. "Where is your sister."

Daria nodded towards Quinn.

"Oh, oh dear. Well, I guess that minor infractions can be looked over since you girls haven't been told the rules yet. My office is this way," she said, marching towards the end of the hall.

"The geek is like, your sister?" Sandi shuddered. "How uncool."

"Uncooooool."

"Totally not cool."

"But," Sandi continued, "How you punched that loser was totally cool. So you should like, sit with us at lunch."

"It was pretty cool how you punched that guy," Stacy agreed.

"Totaaaally coooool."

The three girls walked away and Daria and Quinn headed towards the principal's office.

"By the way," Daria said, "You can only punch four more guys today."

Quinn fingered the strap of her eye patch, making sure none of her hair was bunched around it. "We'll see what happens."


End file.
